A quick rap on the top let Annie know she had been cut loose. Her fate was fully in the hands of the mighty Niagara.
Before it reached the precipice, the barrel would have to travel through the rapids—which tossed the vessel surprisingly gently back and forth. Completely blind to the perils in her path, Annie could only speculate where she was in relation to the waterfall. As she cleared the rapids, she felt the barrel drop as it passed over a reef.
Just before the water crests over the falls, the river reaches a depth of 30 feet-—a fact Annie knew quite well. But, this final step in her journey had the potential to be the most dangerous. If her barrel caught on something in the deep waters, the current could carry her barrel head first over the falls or it could push the barrel off course toward the jagged and rocky edges of the shore.
After passing over the reef, the barrel plunged into the water and became caught on the bottom. Inside, Annie could feel and hear the water rushing over the top of the barrel. Unless she broke free, she faced the very real possibility of drowning even before she made her way over the falls.
As panic began to set in, the barrel jerked forward, and with a stomach-churning spin continued on its course. The anvil that she had brilliantly built into the bottom did the trick. Even as the powerful water spun the barrel, the weight at the bottom kept her upright. As the river carried the helpless Taylor closer to the edge, she again felt the barrel jerk.
In the darkness, blind to her surroundings, it felt like she was being swept into another violent undercurrent that threatened to redirect the course of her fall. She felt herself beginning to drift off course. Completely unaware of how far she still had to travel to reach the edge, Annie feared if she continued on this new path, she would run the risk of plummeting dangerously close to the river’s rocky edge.
Bobbing uncontrollably in the rushing water, Annie was tossed as the barrel unexpectedly made contact with something….perhaps a rock. The sudden change in her momentum was enough to push the barrel back toward the center of the falls and onto her original trajectory.
Then….just as quickly as the barrel had been tossed and turned through the mighty Niagara’s currents….there was calm. It was as though everything had simply come to a pause. Then, without warning, the barrel tilted forward. Annie was at the edge.
The currents threw the barrel over the edge of the falls, and into a 160-foot gut-wrenching, stomach-churning, free fall to the waters below. Within seconds, she plunged into the deep waters at the base of the falls. The complete silence of her submersion terrified Taylor more than the thunder of the cataract itself. For a moment, she felt as though her senses were lost.
The barrel plunged deeper and deeper before slowly beginning to rise back to the surface. Its gradual ascension was then suddenly interrupted by a violent change of direction and a thunderous noise that sounded as though the barrel itself was being smashed apart.
The barrel again submerged, pushed underwater by the force of the falls. It then resurfaced, churning in the deadly waters at the base of the cataract. Annie was trapped.
The impact of the water from above tore at the barrel—tossing and spinning it as though it were weightless. Water began to penetrate the walls. Inside, Taylor was thrown violently, helpless against merciless mother nature.
Later, when recounting this part of her stunt, Taylor recalled that this is where she truly suffered. She added, ““If it was with my dying breath, I would caution anyone against attempting the feat … I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a cannon, knowing it was going to blow me to pieces than make another trip over the Falls.”
With one final toss, the barrel shot from the cataract like “an arrow from a bow”, giving Annie a frightful lurch. It landed in calmer waters, bobbing easily along with the waves. Though her senses were mostly gone by this point, she felt the barrel being pulled against the water toward the shore.
Feeble, and barely realizing she had been rescued, the 63-year-old charm school teacher managed to retort to her rescuers, when they declared, the woman is alive! “Yes, she is but much hurt and confused.” After 50 minutes in her barrel, 35 minutes of which she was in the grip of the tumultuous waters, the semi-conscious Annie was brought to shore.
She was carried to her boarding house where, following a medical examination, it was declared, though bruised and shaken, she was going to survive.
Upon the successful completion of her trip, the newspapers, which up until the moment of her departure viewed her skeptically, almost immediately changed their tune. They hailed her “Queen of the Mist,” and reported on her triumph over mother nature and her unyielding determination to see the stunt through.
Rather than viewing her as merely lucky, many commended her for the forethought and engineering that she put into her idea. She was viewed as a heroine rather than a daredevil…and the public was captivated.
Newspapers reported on any detail they could about her while she recovered, and offers poured in from around the country for speaking engagements and even marriage proposals. Her manager, however, handled each proposition with caution, fearing that these opportunities were designed to make someone else rich off of her work…which is actually kinda funny, because that was exactly what he was doing.
Frank Russel was a small-time promotion manager from Bay City, Michigan who had connections in the circus and sideshow worlds. He had never encountered a plan quite like Annie’s and lacked any real expertise that would be an asset to her. He was, however, one of the few people that didn’t view her as completely crazy for even entertaining the idea. Unfortunately, that became one of the main reasons Annie selected him to represent her.
Almost immediately after her feat, Russel proved to be problematic at best. She had fully expected him to collect money from the assembled crowds while she was in her barrel. But, rather than capitalizing on the moment, he was instead…in a nearby tavern.
Frustrated by his lack of financial prowess, but too inexperienced to take affairs into her own hands, Annie was at his mercy for the booking of her initial events. She was also dependent upon him to handle any publicity. He proved to be further inept at these endeavors as well.
After the stunt was complete, Truesdale and Holleran sought payment for their services. Now, while it’s unclear whether the amount had been predetermined and or offered afterward, the $5 and $3 they were respectively offered seemed pretty paltry given their work and her success. They, very publicly, demanded more money arguing that they had put themselves in a great deal of legal and physical danger and had hand positioned Annie in the perfect location, sparing her a tragic end.
After threatening to steal her barrel and hold it for ransom, Russel upped his offer to $25 dollars each. The boatmen refused and the rift attracted public attention. They eventually finally came to an agreement, but the media coverage had already tarnished the Queen of the Mist. Labeling her parsimonious and stingy to those who had made her survival possible.
One of Annie’s first engagements, ironically not even organized by her manager, was at the Farewell Day festivities at the Pan-American Exposition. She, her barrel, and the man who designed her safety straps were on display at the West Esplanade Bandstand.
But…to the crowds, something seemed off. The daredevil stuntwoman who had braved the falls didn’t exactly look her age. That is,…. she didn’t look the age they expected her to be. You see, she and her manager had felt it would make her a more attractive heroine to declare her age as 43… A full twenty years younger than her actual age. The woman greeting the crowds at the bandstand looked nearly 70 and while upbeat, was reserved and frail-looking.
Though she possessed the indomitable courage necessary to traverse the falls, Taylor lacked the showmanship and business prowess to capitalize on her endeavor. With each speaking engagement and event, Annie became increasingly distrustful of Russel’s management of her money. Russel viewed Annie as being oblivious to the business aspects of management and a boring schoolmarm whose rigid disposition was holding them back.
Their relationship soured to a point of no return when Russel stole her now-famous barrel and left her behind in New York State. By the spring of 1902, mere months after her Niagara Falls stunt, she was penniless….and barrel-less.
Russel had run off with a much younger stage performer named Martha Wagenfuhrer, who had attempted her own daredevil stunt in the Niagara by going over the rapids in a barrel. Her natural showmanship and youth made her a much more appealing heroine, and with Annie’s actual barrel in tow….no one was the wiser to the substitution.
Annie attempted to capitalize upon her feat on her own but failed to present herself as a daring heroine. Despite her best efforts, she always came across as a schoolmarm giving a lecture. Eventually, she had a replica barrel made to accompany her on her talks, but the financial gains she so desperately wanted never materialized.
She lived out the remainder of her life traveling before finally returning to the falls. She briefly toyed with the idea of repeating her stunt in 1906, but instead, set herself up as a small attraction. In addition to retelling her story, she posed for pictures with tourists….and even offered palm readings and magnetic therapy.
Annie Edson Taylor passed away on April 29, 1921, at the age of 82 at the Niagara County Infirmary. She was buried next to fellow Niagara River daredevil Carlisle D. Graham in the “Stunter’s Rest” section of Oakwood Cemetery in Niagara Falls, New York.
Though she never experienced the success she so desperately craved, she did become a legend. The idea of going over the falls in a barrel has become so intrinsic to the colorful history of the falls and the lore surrounding it that we often forget someone had to not only dream up such a feat but also have the courage to do the impossible. That person was Annie Edson Taylor and on this, the 120th anniversary of her triumph over the Niagara, she is reclaiming the place in history which she so rightfully deserves.
Lindsey Lauren Visser 